Brand Safety Policy

Adbustr operates a brand-safety framework aligned with the IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy and the industry brand-safety floor. The categories below are blocked by default across our exchange, and category classification is applied to every request before it is surfaced to demand.

Restricted categories (default block)

• Adult / sexual content (incl. nudity in non-news contexts)
• Hate speech, harassment, and content targeting protected classes
• Graphic violence, gore, and shock content
• Illegal goods, drug paraphernalia, and weapons (unregulated)
• CSAM and exploitation — zero tolerance, immediate enforcement
• Misinformation about health, elections, or major civic events
• Terrorism, extremism, and recruitment content
• Piracy, IP infringement, and counterfeit goods

Contextual classification methodology

Each request carries publisher-declared context, which we classify and check before the auction:

• Page, domain, and app context classified against the IAB Content Taxonomy (site.cat, site.sectioncat, app bundle)
• Adult and illegal categories — IAB25, IAB25-3, IAB26 — rejected at the entry point rather than filtered downstream
• Publisher-level advertiser-domain blocklists (badv) attached to every outbound bid request
• Domain, bundle, and seller-path checks against ads.txt, app-ads.txt, and sellers.json declarations

Advertiser-level suitability controls

Demand partners may apply their own suitability layer on top of the default blocks above:

• Content-category blocklists (bcat) and app blocklists (bapp)
• Advertiser-domain blocks (badv) and creative-attribute restrictions (battr)
• Seat allow- and block-lists
• Domain- and bundle-level allow / block lists maintained per integration

Independent verification

Brand-safety classification can be reconciled against independent verification partners engaged by our advertiser or publisher counterparties, using impression-level logs from our side of the supply path. Aggregate brand-safety metrics are available to active partners on request.

Reporting concerns

Brand-safety issues should be reported to compliance@adbustr.com with the originating impression ID where available. We commit to a 24-hour first response for category violations.